


another night on mars

by destiny919



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Awesome Nino Lahiffe, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Gabriel Agreste's A+ Parenting, Gen, Identity Reveal, Nino Lahiffe Knows, Post-Episode: s03 Caméléon | Chameleon, Post-Episode: s03 Oni-Chan | Oni-Chan, can never emphasize that tag enough, discussion of abuse, emotional abuse/neglect, everyone needs to apologize to marinette or so help me, i cant fucking wait for adrien to get knocked out of denial about his father, not that this show isnt too much of a coward to not reconcile them instead but fuck. that. shit.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-24 14:15:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20359879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destiny919/pseuds/destiny919
Summary: Adrien hasn't been the ally against Lila that Marinette had hoped he would be, but once she gets Nino back on her side, he helps Marinette realize that maybe she hasn't been what Adrien needs either.





	another night on mars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MagicalSpaceDragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicalSpaceDragon/gifts).

> hey y'all so obviously i wrote this fic after onii-chan aired (i have not watched any season 2 or 3 episodes so if i interpreted things completely wrong then oh well let's call it canon divergence like everything else i write) and i was seeing a lot of people treating adrien unfairly, since it was immediately obvious to me that his behavior came from gabriel's abuse. obviously my first move was to get very salty about this to space, at whose behest i then wrote an actual fic. 
> 
> this was months ago, but i've been having intractable computer problems all summer so it's taken me until now to publish it. anyway, no one hates gabriel agreste more than nino lahiffe, so who better to help marinette realize what it took a lot of viewers a while to figure out?
> 
> title song by the maine. bc its about FRIENDSHIP and it got me in the feelings.

"Hey, Mari, can we talk?"

Marinette looked up, surprised. Nino, whom she'd barely spoken to in almost two weeks (just like the rest of her friends, even Adrien the past few days since Onii-chan), wanted to talk to her? "Yeah, sure," she said cautiously. She and Nino had never been best friends, but they had always been close in the way that only people who have been in the same class since kindergarten can be. His siding with Lila had hurt as badly as Alya.

All the other students were filing out of the classroom. Alya and Adrien both stopped at the door and looked back at them curiously, but Nino waved them on. 

Once they were alone, Nino sighed heavily. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you about Lila before."

Marinette stiffened and stood up straighter. "What changed your mind?" she asked suspiciously. 

"Sitting next to her makes it pretty hard to miss that she's never told the truth in her life. And she's  _ nasty -  _ not like Chloe-nasty, thoughtless rich girl nasty - Lila is cruel because she likes to be. It's like, calculated."

"I could have told you that," Marinette said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I  _ tried  _ to tell you that."

"I know," Nino acknowledged, a bit shamefaced. "I'm...really, really sorry I didn't believe you before, Marinette."

_ "Why?"  _ Marinette blurted out before she could stop herself, voice cracking. "Why didn't  _ you _ of all people believe me?"

Nino sighed. "You're...Marinette, do you know how  _ weird  _ you've been acting the past few months? Or like - almost a year, dude, I dunno."

Eight months and seventeen days. That's how long she had been Ladybug.

Marinette swallowed hard but not tried not to react more obviously. "Oh."

"You...you disappear all the time, and come up with the dumbest excuses... I feel like I don't even know you anymore," Nino added plaintively. "So when it was you versus Lila...and you couldn't even say  _ how _ you knew she was lying..."

"Jagged Stone hates cats," Marinette said. "His only pet is Fang the crocodile."

Nino made a frustrated noise. "Okay, but the Jagged Stone thing - it wasn't even a big deal! People lie about knowing celebrities all the time. I'm so - that's just - Mari, I know how much you hate liars, but that's just not enough."

She was silent.

"Doesn't matter." Nino shook his head. "I believe you now. Lila's way worse than anything that could be going on with you. I should have trusted you."

"Thank you, Nino," she said softly. "You're...you're the only one."

"What about Adrien?" Nino asked in surprise. "He didn't believe Lila from the beginning either - he told me he was on your side."

Marinette sniffed. "He said he was on my side, but he also said we should keep quiet about it, and then he's taken Lila's side when I stand up to her! He says I'll just make it worse." Marinette buried her face in her hands.

Nino was quiet for a long moment. And then - "Can we go back to your house? This conversation will need pastries and privacy."

She swiped at her eyes. "Sure." She stood up, holding her bag, and Nino immediately slung his arms around her shoulders and squeezed her in a half-hug. 

He let go while they walked the short distance to the bakery in silence. Marinette was immensely grateful for his apology, and lingering resentment over not being believed was tempered by the knowledge that, to someone who didn't know her secret (which was everyone), his reasons for not having faith in her were very valid. She was also just glad to have someone else on her side now, since Adrien had shown himself a very unreliable ally. 

_ That _ stung. It was almost enough to damage her feelings for him.  _ It's out of kindness,  _ she reminded herself, the very thing that had made her fall for him in the first place, but it rang hollow. She wondered what Nino wanted to tell her about him that required "pastries and privacy."

Her parents supplied the former upon greeting them, and closing her trap door accomplished the latter. 

Marinette sat in her desk chair and let Nino take the chaise. "Alright," she said. "What's up? This is about Adrien, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Nino's expression darkened. "What...What do you actually know about Adrien's father? Besides as a designer. I mean as  _ Adrien's father."  _

She blinked. "He adores Adrien, doesn't he? Kind of strict, but he makes him his top model, gushes about how perfect he is..."

"Ohhh my god." Nino abruptly dropped all formality and flopped over face-first onto her chaise. "Oh my god. Mari, I have some bad news for you. Gabriel Agreste is flaming garbage in a vaguely human shape."

Marinette laughed nervously. "Wh-What?"

"Most of the time he treats Adrien like an employee." He sat up just to lean in close to her. "An  _ American  _ employee."

Her mouth dropped open. 

"He gives Adrien no freedom, no affection, no care or understanding. He's beyond strict. He's beyond distant. He's an abusive tyrant who makes Adrien miserable in the name of what's best for him, when it's about what's convenient for Gabriel!" Nino was breathing heavily already. This was obviously a rant he'd been mentally composing for quite some time. "Adrien's life at home is a living hell of loneliness and overwork. Do you know before he started coming to school with us, he  _ snuck out of his house  _ and ran away - to Francois-Dupont! Because he was so desperate to get out of the house and have friends! And his bodyguard had to fucking drag him back home."

All she could do was stare in shock and horror. Marinette had Adrien's schedule on a huge calendar, and yet it had never occurred to her that maybe how jam-packed it was could be...a bad thing. A horrible thing, for a worse reason. 

"Do you know why I got akumatized?" Nino asked quietly. "I heard afterward that you weren't there during it." 

She was, but as Ladybug. And had somehow never found out  _ why _ her friend got akumatized, so caught up in her superheroics and her crush. Her crush whom she apparently barely knew. Hell, thinking about it, right now she felt like she barely knew Nino, one of her oldest friends. 

She'd been so distant lately, no wonder he hadn't trusted her.

"Go on," Marinette said before she started to cry. "Nino, I'm so sorry, I can't believe I didn't find out why -"

Nino just waved her off. "I found out Adrien had never had a birthday party before. And I went to try and convince his dad to let him have one. It was the first time I met him, obviously."

"Oh no," Marinette muttered.

Nino laughed a bit hysterically. "Now you're getting it. Papa Agreste said no instantly. And then decided I was a bad influence on Adrien and he wasn't allowed to hang out with me anymore."

"Oh my god," she whispered. "Because you wanted to throw Adrien a  _ birthday party?"  _

"Because I wanted Adrien to be happy outside his father's control," Nino said flatly. "No dice. And I was so angry and hurt for Adrien, that  _ this  _ was his father, that I guess an akuma just couldn't resist me."

Marinette swallowed. "Nino, I...I think you're the only person I know who got akumatized for the sake of someone else."

Which was really saying something, since at this point damn near everyone she knew had been akumatized.

He only shrugged. 

"What...what does this have to do with Lila?" Marinette asked.

Nino rolled over on his back on the chaise and looked up at the ceiling. "This is the only way Adrien knows how to handle her. I've seen it when he deals with his dad's bullshit. Don't try to stand up to him because it will just make things worse for you. Go along quietly, and don't be a target. There's no winning if you try to fight." He looked back over at her, dead serious. "Adrien's trying to protect you, Marinette. The only way he knows how."

She only whimpered behind her hands.

Nino, with obvious difficulty, didn't roll his eyes. "You gotta get it together, Mari. I know how much you like him, but that just makes it even more important. He needs you to be his  _ friend,  _ dude. His friend who can speak in complete sentences."

Marinette nodded, eyes slipping shut in shame.

"I'll talk to him about how to handle Lila better," Nino said. "But I think you should too."

"I-" she choked out. "I can call him-"

"Nah," Nino said firmly. "Tomorrow, in person. You can handle it."

Taking a deep breath, Marinette nodded again. Resolutely this time. "You're right that Adrien needs me to  _ really _ be his friend. And if I really love him, that has to be enough to make me get past my nerves."

"Atta girl." Nino held out his fist and she bumped it with hers.

"Bien joue," she murmured without thinking.

"Not yet," Nino said grimly.

"Well,  _ you _ did," Marinette told him. "You're...a  _ great _ friend, Nino. To Adrien and to me."

"That's me," he said with as much cockiness as he could muster. "Nino Lahiffe, award-winning bro."

"I'm...sorry I've been so weird lately," she said. "I'd explain if I could."

He nodded. "I should have trusted you more. Things have changed, but you're still Mari." He looked at her sideways. "Y'know, most of the time."

Marinette froze. She willed her face to stay under control.

"I don't need you to confirm anything," Nino said. "It can stay my suspicion for now." He grinned. "Gotta maintain plausible deniability in case Alya gets a new theory."

"Oh my  _ god." _ Marinette buried her face in her hands.

"And I won't tell  _ you _ my theory about Chat Noir," he added.

She shrieked and threw a pillow at him without a second's hesitation. "No! Shut up!"

Nino gasped with laughter. "I just said I  _ wouldn't  _ tell you!"

"Knowing you  _ have _ a theory is still too much!" she wailed.

"I don't see why you're so crazy about it, dude," Nino said. "Y'know, when we helped out, Alya and I recognized each other immediately. I have no idea how you and Chat Noir -"

"Nino!" she shrieked again. "You just as good as  _ told me I know him!" _

"Are you really more upset about hints about Chat Noir's identity than you are about me...  _ potentially _ knowing yours?" Nino asked. "Thanks for basically confirming it, by the way. Now it's gonna be that much harder to lie to Alya's face."

"Get some tips from Lila," Marinette muttered. "She's great at it." She sighed. "There's nothing I can do about my identity. And I know I can trust you."

"But not Chat Noir?"

Marinette looked away. "He's different."

"Right," he said skeptically. "Well, it's  _ your _ secret identity, Bruce Wayne."

_ "Or is it?" _ Marinette spun around in her chair dramatically. "I never actually confirmed or denied anything!"

"True. True." Nino laughed. "Alright. I gotta get home. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. God, what am I supposed to say to Adrien?"

"I'll try going for it first," Nino promised. "Warm him up for ya."

"Thanks, Nino."

"Yeah, yeah..." He started climbing through her trap door. "God knows I do all the work around here!" he called up before the door shut.

Tikki came floating out as soon as it did, looking sad.

"Are you mad Nino knows?" Marinette asked her. 

"No," the little god said. "It's not like you told him on purpose. I'm just so sad to learn all that about Adrien! He's such a sweet boy."

"I know!" Marinette climbed up her ladder quickly so she could flop onto her bed. "I...I can't believe I had no idea! I idolized Gabriel Agreste!"

"You liked his designs," Tikki tried to correct her.

"But I was also so proud he liked mine. Now it's like...I don't want the approval of anyone who would treat their son like that."

"That's because you're a good person, Marinette," Tikki said with a smile. "And now we know how much Adrien needs someone like you."

Marinette nodded into her cat pillow. "He deserves a friend who can string a complete sentence together."

"You also deserve a friend who will truly be on your side when he says he will," Tikki reminded her. "Openly. Lila isn't his father."

"But I can't  _ say _ that to  _ him," _ Marinette said. "I'm pretty sure Nino told me all that in confidence! I'd love to tell Adrien, hey, your father is a bastard, but you don't have to be afraid of Lila like that!"

Tikki shrugged. "It might work."

Marinette screamed into her pillow.

\--

Marinette woke up the next morning before dawn. She didn't remember actually waking up, only laying flat on her back watching through her skylight as the sky changed from deep blue to pale gold and Adrien's-scarf-blue, and finally full daylight by the time her first alarm went off.

Unlike every other morning, today Marinette wouldn't need the four follow-ups. 

Heedless of the early hour (she knew he was almost as bad about getting up early as she was), she called Nino. 

"Mar'nette?" he mumbled after four rings. "You okay? 'kuma attack?"

"I am not okay!" she wailed. "What am I going to say to Adrien?"

"Oh, for... You and Alya  _ really _ need to make up," Nino grumbled, more awake now. "Just be honest with him. Tell him how you feel. Besides the crush," he added quickly. 

"I'm not sure I could talk about this with Alya anyway," Marinette said. "She doesn't know about Adrien's father."

"Shit, you're right." Nino sighed. "She does care about Adrien too - maybe we can break it to her as soon as she gets her head out of her ass and apologizes to you like I did."

"You know Alya," Marinette said quietly. "We could be waiting a while."

"Yeah." He was silent for a long moment. "I really am sorry I didn't take your side from the beginning, Mari. I should have out of, like, loyalty, no matter which one of you I actually believed, y'know?"

Marinette was already shaking her head even though he couldn't see her. "No, Nino, I don't want that! You know how important the truth is to me -"

"Yeah, that's exactly my point, I  _ know _ how important it is! I know  _ you.  _ Like, who the hell even is Lila? Some random chick we barely know who's such a pathetic nobody she has to lie about her entire life."

"Wow." Marinette whistled. "Tell me what you really think!"

"I don't appreciate being taken for a ride," Nino said flatly. "Even if it was my own damn fault for believing her - when the truth was  _ right there -  _ she's still the one trying to manipulate me and all my friends. Including my very vulnerable best bro."

"He's not as vulnerable as you might think," Marinette reminded him. "He was the first and only person to side with me from the start, remember."

"Yeah. He can be...pretty tough." There was a smile in Nino's voice that Marinette didn't quite understand. "Sometimes it's almost like he's.... _ two people." _

Well, that was a strange thing to say. "I don't really know what you mean. If you mean he can be goofy -"

"Oh, you have  _ no _ idea -"

"Don't interrupt me -"

"Actually, you might have an even better idea than me, from a certain point of view -"

"What?"

"Nothing. Look, Mari," Nino said, "we agreed I'd talk to him first, yeah? So I'll catch him before class. You can find him in the library during study hour or something."

Marinette wanted to spazz out completely just contemplating that. She tugged the covers up to her chin and started babbling before she could stop herself. "Y'know what I think I might be coming down with something and I shouldn't go to school I wouldn't want to get everyone sick -"

_ "Mari." _

"Okay! Fine! I'm getting up." Nino would take even less of her shit than Alya. There was nothing else for Marinette to do but get up and ready for the school day; she was extra glad for having more time than usual, since if she was going to have a serious, emotional conversation with Adrien - here her brain went off on one of its usual warp-speed worst-case scenario assessments - she wanted to look her best, at least. 

\--

"Okay, I talked to Adrien," Nino told her that afternoon on the way to study hall. "I just told him that I'd explained some things to you about his relationship with his dad that he didn't know. Of course ya boi played dumb about what those might be -"

"Did you say anything about Lila?" Marinette asked nervously. She'd really hoped Nino would do at least some of the conversational heavy lifting so her ineptitude wouldn't ruin everything. 

"Yeah, dude, I told him I'm on your side now. He was really glad about that until I also mentioned that he'd been doing a shit job of it himself."

"What!" Marinette shrieked. "That's not true! Adrien's been nothing but-"

"A fair-weather ally whose conflict resolution skills leave something to be desired," Nino deadpanned. "He  _ thinks _ he's doing everything he can to support you, dude. But he could do more."

Marinette hugged herself while they kept walking down the hall. "I don't really know if that's true, I mean..."

"Just having someone else stand up to Lila - I mean,  _ really _ stand up to her - would have been important." She couldn't deny the truth of that. Even as Ladybug standing up to Hawkmoth and dozens of akuma, she had  _ always _ had Chat Noir right beside her. If only Chat were with her against Lila, too. There was nothing she couldn't defeat with him as her partner. 

They'd arrived at the library, where Adrien had mentioned he would be spending study hall. He had a lot of work to catch up after the whirlwind of modeling and akuma attacks he'd dealt with lately, apparently. Marinette didn't know why akuma attacks would have put him so far behind, but maybe he'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong moment a few too many times. 

Marinette, if she was honest, was hoping that after they had a successful heart-to-heart they could study together. First of all she didn't want to make Adrien fall further behind, second of all  _ she _ was also dealing with a lot of missed work because of akuma attacks. Although in her case it was because of battling them, which wouldn't be Adrien's problem. 

"Go in." Nino pointed towards the back, where they could see a few tufts of blond hair peeking from behind a bookshelf. 

"You're not coming in with me?" Marinette squeaked. 

Nino laughed. "Nah, the library during study hall? Not my scene. And this isn't my conversation. I already talked to him, bro."

"Oh God," Marinette whispered. "Oh God, oh God, oh God-"

"Snap out of it!" Nino shook her a little. "It's Adrien! It's your  _ friend!  _ He adores you, Mari, there's nothing you could say to him that would be as bad as you're imagining. And he needs you."

"He needs me," she repeated. "He  _ needs _ me!"

"Go get 'im." Nino threw her fingerguns and a wink, and Marinette rolled her eyes on reflex, reminded of Chat Noir. At the same time, thinking of Chat supporting her gave Marinette some more courage, and she walked into the library, all the way to the back where she found Adrien hunched over a study table looking through his literature textbook. 

"Hey," she said, only a little nervous.

He looked up and smiled beatifically. Marinette's heart inflated like a balloon and floated out of her body and all the way up through the atmosphere. "Hey, Mari," he said. His smile faded, and Marinette's heart returned to earth. "Is this about Lila?" She suddenly felt very bad that despite claiming to love him, she actually came to hang out with Adrien or just talk to him infrequently enough that he already knew she had to have some kind of ulterior motive. She quickly considered postponing this conversation so she could prove that wrong, but this was too important.

"Well, I do want to get some studying done too," Marinette said slowly, "but yeah, I wanted to..." She took a deep breath and sat down in the seat next to Adrien before turning in it to face him.

"Why did you take Lila's side yesterday?" she asked point-blank. "And don't say that's not what you meant to do, because that's how it turned out."

Adrien just blinked at her for several moments, and then his face crumpled a bit. "I'm sorry, Marinette. I just didn't want you to..."

"Were you trying to protect me?" Marinette said in a whisper. 

"Yes." He sighed. "I just didn't want you to make things worse unintentionally."

She reached out and laid her hand over his, ducking her head a bit to meet his lowered eyes. "Adrien," she said, "there's nothing else she can do to me. The only way it could get worse is if I didn't have  _ you _ on my side anymore. And that's how it felt yesterday."

His head jerked up and he stared at her, too determined to be a deer in headlights. The expression was terribly familiar to her, but Marinette couldn't place how. 

"Marinette, I'm  _ always _ on your side," he said, urgent and dead serious. "I would never abandon you to - to Lila like that."

Adrien turned his hand over under hers so he could squeeze it tightly. Marinette felt her heart leap into her throat and try to crawl out her mouth.

"I'm always on your side," he repeated, more softly. 

For just a moment, Marinette wasn't sitting with Adrien in the library. She was standing opposite Chat Noir on a rooftop, wind blowing through his blond hair as he promised to always be her partner.

As with previous reminders of him, this unexpected image gave her courage. "Then I need you to act like it," she told him, voice gentle but stare hard. "Don't let me be alone...and I won't let you be, either."

Adrien looked at her, and for the briefest of seconds, she saw the world of hurt in his eyes. And squeezed his hand back. 

"Thank you, Marinette," he breathed. 

"Anytime, Adrien," she said, and meant it. "If you're lonely, or angry, or sad...I'll be there for you."

_ Literally,  _ she thought, wondering if she could somehow use her Ladybug powers to help her and Nino sneak in his house. Maybe bring him cookies. Or pain au chocolat, if he kept looking at her like  _ this.  _

Impulsively, Marinette said, "Nino told me about your father."

Adrien's face blanched, and he averted his eyes. She missed them immediately. "Nino makes it sound worse than it is. My father cares for me very much, he-"

"Adrien," she said.

He swallowed. "I promise it's not that bad," he said weakly. 

"But it's still bad. You can't deny that."

Adrien seemed to droop a bit in his chair. He met her eyes again. "There's no use in complaining, either. It won't change anything. And if I try it with him things will just get even worse."

"Like you thought they would with Lila?" she pointed out.

"You're right about her. But not him," Adrien whispered. 

Marinette leaned closer, as if she were drawn to his distress like a moth to a light. She  _ had _ to help, he was her- her-

Perhaps he felt equally connected, because in perfect sync, without conscious thought, the two of them both shifted their hands to lace their fingers together on top of the table.

"I said I'd be here for you, Adrien," Marinette said finally. "And I'm not going to let your father stop me."

Adrien should have found the idea of Marinette defying his father laughable, no matter how amazing he found her. But somehow he felt that if anyone could take him down, it was the girl holding his hand. He had to tell her-

"Thank you," he said softly, falteringly. The words felt wrong in his mouth, like there was something else he's supposed to be telling her. 

Marinette felt the same words he couldn't find get caught in her throat. She settled for another squeeze of his hand, fingers still intertwined. "Nino felt the same way," she remembered to add. "I wouldn't be sitting here with you right now if it wasn't for him."

"I owe him a pretty big thank you, then," Adrien murmured. "If he's the reason you talked to me today..."

Crimson flooded Marinette's cheeks, and she would have certainly snatched her hand away in a panic - and obliterated all progress with Adrien in the process - if it weren't for some bone-deep feeling of comfort and familiar with Adrien's maybe-flirtatious words. He could have just meant he was grateful Nino prompted her to talk to him about this rather than stew in her negative feelings, but there was his adoring tone - though that's surely not how he meant it, she couldn't describe it any other way.

"I owe him a thank-you, too," she said shyly. "It would, um - it would be nice if we could just hang out like this more." Not on a date, just two friends being emotionally vulnerable and honest about it! Everything she didn't allow from Chat Noir...

"That would be great!" Adrien's smile was the same sunshine as usual, but there was an extra glow of warmth in his green eyes that caused Marinette to blush even harder, even while they made her think of someone else. 

"If you need to talk about anything, like I said, or just want to get your butt kicked on Mecha Strike..." He made a face and she giggled. 

"Really, Mari?" he whined. "If I came to you in emotional distress, you wouldn't go even a  _ little _ easy on me?"

"Not at all," she said smugly. "We take no prisoners in the Dupain-Cheng household."

Adrien's face slowly turned blank once more, and somehow Marinette knew he was thinking of the other household, where he was almost nothing  _ but  _ a prisoner. 

"But you're always welcome there," she added. "You and my dad should play sometime. You might stand a chance of beating him."

He cracked a smile again. "Thanks, Marinette. I'll look forward to that."

\--

By now, everyone in Paris knew Ladybug and Chat Noir's favorite haunts. The Eiffel Tower, Montparnasse, various rooftops with a good view of the Seine... Nino's own apartment didn't have any views of the river (the Lahiffes weren't exactly Bourgeois- or Agreste-level wealthy) but his window did have a view of a particular rooftop that for whatever reason the two heroes of Paris showed up on quite frequently.

Only Nino knew this was because it was about the same distance away from both their homes. He watched out his window as Chat Noir and Ladybug chased each other around the rooftop like children, the occasional shriek or giggle loud enough to be heard across the street. Eventually they tired out and sat together on the edge closest to the Seine. 

After study hall that day Nino had gotten a text from Marinette telling him she'd talked with Adrien. She'd been full of ideas for how her Miraculous powers (which she'd still only hinted at, making him snort) could be used to help Adrien.  _ One way or another, _ she'd texted,  _ I'll be there for him from now on. _

Over on the roof, Chat Noir had slumped down a bit and his head was resting on Ladybug's shoulder. Their silhouettes were completely blurred. 

Nino finally wrote Marinette back: _ You're already doing more for him than you think. _ He was not surprised when he didn't receive a reply right away, or at all. Another look out the window told him the moon had fully risen by now, and Ladybug and Chat Noir were still sitting closely together. 

He knew tomorrow would be one of those days Adrien walked into class grinning from ear-to-ear despite dark shadows under his eyes, when he'd stayed up far too late for Ladybug instead of a photoshoot. And there would be a quiet peace around Marinette that was rarely there, and even without whatever change was precipitated by the conversation she had with him in the library, it would be easier for her to talk to Adrien than usual - because her mind was on what she believed to be a  _ different _ blond boy. While he didn't even notice her saner-than-usual behavior because  _ he _ was thinking about Ladybug, without realizing Ladybug sat behind him.

Nino snorted to himself.  _ That,  _ he might just let them figure out on their own. Some disasters were beyond even his help. 

Hopefully they wouldn't take too much longer. 

**Author's Note:**

> [i still have a tumblr](https://tarvek-sturmvoraus.tumblr.com/) with a significant amount of ladybug content


End file.
